REVIEW | A SUMMER NIGHT WITH CRAIG DAVID: TS5 AT ITS FINEST AT KEW THE MUSIC

By Salfreckles • On Reviews

Throw­back to the year 2000… I was for­tu­nate to have grand­par­ents who, even into my early adult­hood, would ask us grandkids, “What’s on your Christ­mas list?”

Craig David’s Born to Do It CD was on mine, which they prob­ably bought from good old Wool­worths on Streath­am High Road. Wool­ies is missed, but not quite as much as Nan and Grandad.

This was still a time when music videos helped seal the deal, a way for us to con­nect with the artist and feel the song even more deeply.

‘7 Days’ hit us, or at least me, with a feel­ing of famili­ar­ity. Craig gave a less eer­ie spin to walk­ing through the sub­way. I ima­gined it set in Ele­phant & Castle, though I believe it was filmed around King’s Cross. The video cap­tured some­thing real: the kind of genu­ine con­nec­tion most of us hope to find. It showed vul­ner­ab­il­ity from a male per­spect­ive, with the barber­shop con­vos and the Ground­hog Day-style mes­sage that rela­tion­ships take effort and fine-tun­ing. One of my cous­ins thought it was a bit mushy, but it was my Christ­mas gift, not his. He was prob­ably into Iron Maid­en at the time anyway.

Craig has built a music career on two fronts. He mastered a blend of Gar­age beats with smooth, sen­su­al vocals that took him straight to the top of the charts, what they call the main­stream, and again with his TS5 parties. Through­out it all, he remained incred­ibly humble and genu­ine, even as he took the stage with clear joy and con­fid­ence in doing what he loves.

He’s a great example of lit­er­ally walk­ing away from the envy of suc­cess and media scru­tiny, includ­ing some pretty ques­tion­able comed­ic mock­ery, and find­ing his path again while stay­ing true to his purpose.

His decision to step out of the spot­light and enjoy some peace in Miami ended up put­ting him back on track nat­ur­ally, deliv­er­ing music to the masses once again.

Tower Suite 5, or TS5, became the birth­place of a new chapter. It marked an “I love music and no envi­ous media is going to dim my light” era.

What star­ted in 2012 as cas­u­al pent­house parties, with Craig DJing and MCing for friends, gained trac­tion when he uploaded them to Sound­Cloud. By 2013, they caught atten­tion across the pond, lead­ing to a live TS5 show from Miami on Kiss FM, which later moved to Cap­it­al Xtra. I remem­ber tun­ing in and tweet­ing my thanks for the tunes from so far away. Those early social media days.

TS5 has since evolved into a glob­al phe­nomen­on, with sold-out shows across the US, Lon­don, Ibiza, Aus­tralia, Japan, Dubai, Malay­sia, Bali, Hong Kong, New Zea­l­and, and even Gla­ston­bury, twice.

Which brings me to the reas­on for writ­ing this.

On Tues­day, 5 July 2025, Craig returned to Kew the Music for a second time with a TS5 set, and it was my first time see­ing him live. Per­fect tim­ing too, as he cel­eb­rates 25 years since the release of his debut album Born to Do It.

He didn’t waste a second and launched straight into the clas­sics. Yes, they’re clas­sics now. Re-Rewind, Fill Me In, Really Love, Are You Sleep­ing?, Women Trouble, then blend­ing into oth­er Old Skool Gar­age tracks and instru­ment­als, enhanced with his vocals, start­ing with Flowers.

He also played some favour­ite R&B tunes, singing over parts of Mario’s Let Me Love You, Né-Yo’s So Sick, and TLC’s No Scrubs, before tak­ing us back with Woman Trouble, When the Bass­line Drops —  I kind of hoped Big Narstie would pop on stage! He then reflec­ted on grate­ful he was to work with Sting after singing Rise And Fall to us. He clearly enjoyed him­self, and the crowd loved every second of it.

Hear­ing an artist whose live voice matches, and even sur­passes, the stu­dio ver­sion is always spe­cial. No auto­t­une, no excess­ive ad-libs. Just power­ful, heart­felt vocals delivered with strength, pas­sion, and a beam­ing smile. He didn’t miss a beat, seam­lessly mov­ing between the decks and the front of the stage, inter­act­ing with the crowd. His songs still strike emo­tion­al chords, and the audi­ence sang back nearly every word.

“You could have gone any­where tonight, but you chose to be here. I don’t take this for gran­ted. I appre­ci­ate each and every one of you.”

Hon­estly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was London’s respec­ted Kew Gar­dens, the tick­ets were pricey and some even came with a hamper, but you could bring your own food and drink, which was a bonus.

What struck me most was that every­one there knew who they’d come to see, and it showed. As I arrived, I saw a grid of groups on pic­nic blankets, drinks and snacks in tow. Pro­secco bottles, chips and dips, bare­foot dan­cing, and even a little girl sprawled across her giant cuddly Stitch.

The crowd spanned all ages, fam­il­ies with young kids, adults bring­ing their par­ents. It was beau­ti­ful to see every­one hav­ing a great time. At one point, Craig said, “I love how music con­nects us, like it’s wired into our DNA” and “It con­nects us in a way that makes us feel like we all know each other.”

The audi­ence was mes­mer­ized dur­ing his a cap­pella moments, with huge applause when he per­formed Justin Bieber’s Love Your­self. When he slipped into MC mode, the energy shif­ted into anoth­er gear.

High­lights for me included the Sean Paul and Major Lazer mashup, Walk­ing Away per­formed over Dr. Dre’s Still D.R.E., and Ren­dez­vous over Nicki Minaj’s Moment for Life instrumental.

It was a music­al jour­ney through Old Skool Gar­age, R&B, a bit of Hip-Hop, and House before wrap­ping with, of course, 7 Days.

The sound was phe­nom­en­al. As I walked into the arena, I wondered what the trees thought of the bass, and just how massive Kew Gar­dens really is, with all of us feel­ing like a tiny dot in its vast space.

The visu­als were equally on point. I’m lov­ing his new CD logo. It lit up the stage and cre­ated a glow­ing party atmo­sphere. As night fell, the lights twinkled in con­trast with the dark­ness of the sur­round­ing gar­dens. At one point, Craig looked up and smiled, “Look at that lovely moon in the sky for us.”

It was magical.

Although he’s only a few years young­er than me, I felt an unex­pec­ted proud-par­ent kind of moment, still see­ing that cheeky, tal­en­ted young man in his bean­ie, smash­ing it with his first solo album. He truly was born to do it.

Craig’s new album Com­mit­ment drops on 8 August. Catch the launch event at HERE at Out­er­net on 12 August.

Thank you Dea­con Communications.

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Salfreckles

Sally Mur­row aka Sal­freckles is a Lon­don­er who works in early edu­ca­tion, she has a back­ground in graph­ic design and finds inspir­a­tion for her art from hip hop rhymes and culture.

About Salfreckles

Sally Murrow aka Salfreckles is a Londoner who works in early education, she has a background in graphic design and finds inspiration for her art from hip hop rhymes and culture.